100 Women Who Care give $10,300 to School Nutrition AgriCulture

Members of 100 Women Who Care Southern Delaware gathered at North Georgetown Elementary School in the fall to present an award of $10,300 to the School Nutrition AgriCulture Program.

Accepting the award were Shandra Furtado, program director; Maxine Middlebrook, garden coordinator; and Corey Dietrich, North Georgetown assistant principal.

Funds support STEM-based garden programming at all SNAC Garden partner schools, which includes Long Neck Elementary and Southern Delaware School of the Arts and Howard T. Ennis School.

In partnership with 100 Women Who Care Southern Delaware, the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation, based in Minnesota, contributed an additional $5,000.  

The School Nutrition AgriCulture Program’s mission is to transform Sussex County schoolyards into vibrant outdoor classrooms and thriving ecosystems where students of all backgrounds and ethnicities have equitable access to structured hands-on STEM learning and health education. Primary themes include education equity, healthy communities, environmental connections, mindfulness and art in the garden, and long-term sustainability.

Furtado said, “SNAC gardens offer a hands-on alternative to STEM learning, providing regular exposure to gardening and natural systems as a catalyst for learning life skills such as patience, independence, critical thinking, abundance mindsets, mindfulness, self-efficacy, and confidence in community.” She said this award will help expand their gardening programming to reach over 2,500 students and help pave the way to provide this service to all students in Sussex County.

For more information, go to Facebook for 100 Women Who Care Southern Delaware, or email 100womencaresd@gmail.com.